I wasn't going to post on Veterans Day at all, in part because the overblown hero worship that's been attached to it for some time is really starting to bug me. But then, I've been owly recently anyhow.
But, as predictable (every year the number of posts on this site goes up, this year no exception, which is why I’m considering not posting at all in December) I changed my mind. A few random comments.
Were you in the Army?
My new associate asked me this the other day, as I have the photograph of my basic training platoon up on my office wall.
Funny, I'm so used to it being there, I never notice it.
Military service, regular and reserve, was routine when I was young. Not everyone had it by any means, but lots of people do.
And this was even more so for my parents. My father was in the Air Force, his brother in the Army. My other uncles in the World War Two Navy and Canadian Army, and post-war Navy. The guys my father ate lunch with every day had all been in the service.
Not so much anymore.
November 7, 1983: Able Archer 83, a Close Call
Reagan became President in 1981 and as soon as his first military budgets started to take effect, things really were noticeable in the Guard. New equipment, better field training, etc. The Warsaw Pact took note of that and started building up to counter it.
Able Archer, like Team Spirit, and Reforger were all part of the training regime of the time. It was no secret that the Warsaw Pact was trying to respond to it all. In the end, that spending brought them down. They couldn't afford it.
A lesson there to a country that's spending like crazy right now and just got economically downgraded.
Anyhow, my prediction nearly came true with Able Archer, but not for the reason I thought this would happen. I thought it would happen as the Warsaw Pact, or rather the USSR, would reason that it only had so much time while it had military superiority in which to act.
This was a view, I'd note, that was reinforced by playing the military hex and counter war games based on a NATO/Warsaw Pact war. It was pretty clear that it was really hard for NATO to win a conventional one.
Or so it seemed.
We vastly overrated the Red Army and Soviet military equipment, as the war in Ukraine has demonstrated.
Funny, at the same time I recall being assigned A Republic of Grass in college which suggested we surrender to the Soviets before a war broke out.
A note on Reagan
When Reagan was President, I wasn't sure what to make of him. As a Guardsman, we were all grateful for the new equipment and attitude. Carter's military had been a sad sort of thing, as exemplified, perhaps, by the failed attempt to mount a raid to free the Iranian embassy hostages.
But it seemed like we were messing around in Central America an awful lot, which I wasn't sure what to make of. In retrospect, it's clear that the Cold War was being played out there in proxy.
When Reagan was president, I was a university student. It seems to be forgotten now, but most university students weren't big Reagan fans. As noted, I wasn't an opponent, but I wasn't a fan. My father was convinced that Reagan had Alzheimer's which, in fact, he did.
On Reagan and Carter, it's interesting to note that Carter was an Annapolis graduate. Reagan had more of a military career than his opponents claimed, having been a pre-war cavalry reserve officer, but his wartime role was in the branch of the military that made films. That was honorable enough, but Reagan introduced the snappy salute to servicemen which stuck after that, and which I don't like. Presidents saluting servicemen seems really odd, particularly when we get Presidents who've never been in the military.
Anyhow, most of my conservative friends love and admire Reagan. I still am not so sure about him. I can see where he made course corrections at the time which were vital. It was under Reagan, really, that the country got back on its feet after the Vietnam War. And Reagan introduced the brief period of Buckleyite conservatism, which I like, to the government.
He also, however, started the populist smudge which is now a roaring flame by using the Southern Strategy to win, and that's having dire effects. And frankly, I'm not impressed with the starving of the government economically that came in at that time.
On this Veterans Day, don't thank those who served, but ponder those who didn't.
This sounds harsh, but I'm not kidding.
Most veterans don't really want to be thanked for serving. Truth be known, a lot of us served for reasons that weren't all that noble or were mixed. Paying for university was in my mind, for example.
Having said that, in my adult years I've known a few people who avoided serving in the military when there was a time of need. Some of them have real reason of conscience and can and do defend it, on the rare occasions it comes up.
In contrast, we have people who sort of hero worship the military, or who are public figures thanking it, about whom there are real questions.
Donald Trump sent out his thanks today, but he avoided the Vietnam draft on a medical profile. That's never been adequately answered, and in private comments he disdains those who served in the military, which fits right in with his epic level of being self impressed. Biden had draft deferments too, I'd note.
There are real reasons for deferments, but what gets me here is the co-opting of valor, or the bestowing of it on people who don't deserve it. People don't claim that Biden is some sort of hero. But you can find completely absurd illustrations of Trump as a military figure. I don't really see Trump voluntarily serving in any war at any time, and had he lived during the Revolution, I sure don't see him as some sort of Continental Army officer.
So, while it's rude, for at least some thanking veterans "for their service", an appropriate response is "why didn't you serve?".
The real purpose of the day
The real purpose of this day is to remember the dead and badly wounded. That's about it.
Lots of people serve during time of peace in one way or another. We don't deserve your thanks. Yes, I'm sure that I'm personally responsible for keeping the Red Horde at bay, but I didn't get hurt serving. Truth be known, I benefitted from it personally in all sorts of ways, a lot of which are deeply personal. The service formed a lot of my psychology on certain things in a permanent way, all of which are ways in which I'm glad that it did.
A lot goes into a person's personality, some of it more significant than others, and I do have more significant ones. The service was, however, a significant one. Hindsight being 20/20, I wish I had not gotten out of the Guard when I did, also for a selection of personal reasons.
So I owe the service thanks. The country doesn't really owe me any. But people whose lives were permanently altered or last? Well, that's a different matter.
